Giving Up
by Lord Mendasuit
Summary: Eventually, even the most stubborn of men give up on the impossible. He held on to the last second, hoping against hope that his once best friend could at least glimpse the light for a few instants. Now, however, standing over his soon to be corpse, he questions Sasuke's motivations for one last time, hoping for the best, but expecting the worst.


Naruto fell to his knees, using one of his hands to stop himself from hitting the floor face first. He coughed a bit, letting out the blood that had pooled in his lungs and then wiping it off his lower lip. Once that was done, he got back on his feet and surveyed the land with a grimace. The once proud Forest of Death had been reduced to naught but a smoking crater with some trees at its edges, though most of them had been uprooted from the force of their clash.

"H-How… I am… The most powerful…" he heard a whimpering, pained voice speak.

His grimace turned into a frown as his eyes settled on the soon-to-be corpse of his once best friend and brother in all but blood. "No. You're not." The blond Hokage said, crossing his arms and glaring at the now fully grown man who was even now trying desperately to get back on his feet.

The Uchiha, the last one of them, Naruto was damn sure of it this time, growled up and tried to muster his chakra to no avail, for he had little to none left. "You… have no right…"

"Oh, yes I do, Sasuke." Naruto informed him, curtly, taking a few steps forward. "I am a very patient man. I've forgotten and forgiving more offenses than you can count, Sasuke. I forgave the genocide of my people. I forgave the man who single handedly caused most of the pain in my life. I forgave a misguided, idiotic old man who went insane a hundred years ago and I forgave an omnicidal, world-destroying entity that knew only how to blow things up." He crouched and then grabbed the back of the Uchiha's long, badly cut and dirtied hair and lifted him up by it. "I have every right to defend my people from an insane mass murderer."

Sasuke let out a loud yelp of pain as Naruto's rough manhandling rattled his already abused body once more. Yet he bit back his pain and gathered his strength to perform one last act of defiance and spite when he spat a wad of phlegm and blood at the blond Hokage's face. Naruto didn't even seem to care and just wiped it off.

"I have forgiven you more than anyone else." Naruto continued. "Everything you did… I always worked to find an excuse. I always worked to find a way to forgive you and to get everyone else to forgive you too. Do you know how hard it was to get the Shinobi Alliance to rescind the Kill On Sight order on your head?" Naruto asked, raising one eyebrow. "Of course you don't, since you don't care about it."

Sasuke didn't know whether it was the rage or the realization that he was going to die very soon, but he disregarded his pain when he once more glared at Naruto. "I don't care!" He nearly yelled, although his lungs simply didn't have the strength to do it. "You… ruined my revenge!" He said, wheezing as he did. "Konoha spat on my clan, subjected them to slavery and when they weren't useful anymore, they disposed of them!"

Naruto grinned humorlessly, and let himself chuckle at the conviction in the Uchiha's voice. "Did we, Sasuke? Or did we open our arms and allow them in our midst?" Asked the Hokage, however, he did not pause to let Sasuke get a word in, edgewise. "Madara betrayed the entire village, Sasuke, because he was nuts. It wasn't because he was betrayed, even though he thought he'd been. He betrayed the village, plain and simple. He was also the clan head of the Uchiha and his actions reflect upon the clan. The Uchiha could've been wiped out right then and there, Sasuke."

Sasuke sneered. "A bunch of weaklings like the clans that formed Konoha could never stand up to the combined might of the Uchiha clan!"

The bitter laugh that Naruto answered with should've been a shock to Sasuke, as Naruto had never been bitter before. "A whole clan wielding the Mangekyou?" Naruto asked. "Maybe then they'd have had trouble." He admitted. "A clan of ninja who are, ultimately, as average as everyone else outside for their funky eyes against an entire village? Yeah, no."

The Uchiha was ready to protest once again, but then he bit back the protest, though Naruto couldn't fathom why, perhaps he thought the greatness of the Uchiha clan went better unexplained or didn't bother to answer the obvious taunt. "You speak of that village of traitors like it's worth defending!"

"YOU are the traitor, Sasuke!" Naruto quickly yelled.

"No! Konoha betrayed me first! They were holding me back! I needed to grow stronger… They held me back because they feared me!"

"To Konoha, Sasuke, you were about as threatening as a rabid stray dog." The blond chuckled once more at the logic of the black haired individual. He shook his head for a few seconds. "But that doesn't matter to you, does it? Your clan… in the end, it isn't really important… It's only a fucking justification. In the end… It's all about you, isn't it?" Naruto asked, absent mindedly. "It's always been all about you. You never thought about anyone else. All you cared about was yourself and your revenge." He said, narrowing his eyes at the Uchiha. "The Uchiha clan was just an excuse for your revenge."

"I am the last of the Uchiha!" Sasuke protested. "The hopes and dreams of my clan rest upon me! I can't let you stop me! Not now, not ever!"

"I'm sure the hopes and dreams of your clan would involve you becoming a mass murderer and teaming up with the man who single handedly caused most of their problems, as well as destroying everything they helped build. Grow up, you asshole, your clan, as a whole, would never have wanted this!"

The Uchiha merely glared, being too busy catching his breath to allow himself to reply.

"Have you ever read your mother's will?" Naruto asked, raising an eyebrow. Sasuke growled out a negative. "Thought so." He said, silently admitting that it'd have been impossible for him to read her will, what with being a missing nin all this time. "Our mothers were best friends, you know. We were supposed to be raised together." He added, seeming nostalgic for a few seconds. "She wanted you to remain in the village where you would be safe. I doubt she would've wanted her son to become a monster."

"I'm not a monster! I'm an avenger! Konoha likes to parade itself as the greatest village when it's just as much of a wretched hive of scum and villainy as everywhere else! They're nothing but backstabbing bastards who dispose of their tools as soon as they're not useful anymore!"

"You know, it probably should hurt me that you think the village I run is like that." Naruto admitted, rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand. "But then again, you're nuttier than squirrel poop, so your opinion is probably biased anyway." He would have shrugged, but he still held onto Sasuke's hair.

"You're just like everyone else!"

Naruto laughed. "I never was." He admitted. "I had to work so hard to get the people of Konoha to accept me, Sasuke… I had to work hard for something you had right from the start. Everyone loved you, Sasuke, everyone wanted you to succeed in your task. You were deemed a hero, a lone, tortured soul wanting only justice."

"They were just trying to keep me imprisoned in Konoha so they could keep me weak!"

Shaking his head, the Hokage sighed. "Konoha did everything in its power to help you grow, Sasuke. To teach you its philosophy and its ways. However, the path to power is long and arduous."

"Don't speak to me of this! I know it better than anyone!" Sasuke snarled, straining to trash, yet managing only a sad little twitching. "You were handed your power on a platter from birth while I had to train to grow strong."

"No, you don't understand, Sasuke." Naruto began, smiling. "I had Kurama since day one, I'll admit to that. I had to actually defeat him in a fight and TAKE his power, Sasuke, before I could control it. I had to grow ridiculously strong myself so I could beat up the goddamn Kyuubi in a fistfight to steal its power before I could use it."

"You always used it whenever you were on the bridge of defeat!" Sasuke snapped.

Naruto actually burst out laughing. "I don't think I've ever used the Kyuubi's power when fearing for my life. Nah, the first time I used it, I thought Haku had killed you and went all Uchiha on his ass." The blond admitted shamelessly. "I used it to protect the people I loved, Sasuke, just as I do today."

The Uchiha lacked a response to that argument, and decided to remain silent.

"As for you understanding the path to power… you don't. You could never understand it, Sasuke, because you took the easy route. The lazy route." The blond man explained, grimacing as he stared at Sasuke's eyes, and his mouth curling into a snarling protest. "You worked hard in Konoha, Sasuke, you trained like a madman. However, you weren't happy with the rate of your growth. You thought that it was Konoha's fault, because they held you back with their teamwork bullshit and how they didn't bend over and offer the seat of Hokage to you."

"Yes!" Sasuke yelled before he could help himself.

"Yeah, Konoha was at fault, wasn't it? Because god forbid YOU were the one who was at fault. God forbid you being the arrogant prick who never understood what the Will Of Fire is or why Konoha is the strongest Shinobi village. News flash, idiot, Konoha was only 'holding' you back because you could never get past the basics due to your own ego!"

"That's bullshit!" Sasuke yelled.

"No. No it isn't, Sasuke." Naruto said, looking at him with a sad expression. "I gave you a final chance, I told you to surrender. I even offered you a pardon for your crimes against pretty much everyone everywhere." The blond said, looking not unlike a kicked puppy. "I thought you could pull your head out of your ass for two seconds to listen to me but you can't."

"I have no reason to listen to your bullshit! You're just the leaf's spokesman!"

Naruto chuckled bitterly once more. "You never grew up, did you?" He asked, looking at the Uchiha in the eye. "You're a kid, Sasuke, you're just a goddamn kid who can't accept that the world doesn't revolve around you and your clan."

He let go of the Uchiha's hair before he could form a protest and heard the sickening thud when he hit the hard dirt, before standing up and looking around. He turned his back on the downed Uchiha and started to walk away. "Goodbye, Sasuke. When you get to hell, say hello to Orochimaru."

And then the Rokudaime Hokage simply walked away and left the last of the Uchiha clan to die in a crater of his own making.


End file.
